Wondering what to get the wannabe traveler and outdoor lover for birthdays or holidays this year? I've put together a list of things I personally love - including books, winter gear and games, along with a few random products that I think would make great gifts. This year I'd recommend ordering early because of ongoing disruptions in the supply chain, uncertain demand and longer than normal shipping times. Keep in mind that this post does…
Kootenay National Park, located in southeast British Columbia, is one of four national parks that make up the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site. When you drive Highway 93 - the only major highway through the park, you get the feeling that much of the park remains untrampled and unexplored. Steep mountains, waterfalls galore, canyons, beautiful rivers and even a hot spring are all here waiting to be discovered. Kootenay National Park is…
Bow Valley Provincial Park, less than an hour's drive west of Calgary, is a great year-round destination. The park is blessed with a varied landscape that includes a section along the glacier-fed Bow River at the confluence of the Kananaskis River, grasslands, boreal forest and a bit of the front range of the Canadian Rockies. In summer Bow Valley Provincial Park is a wonderful place to go camping (though be prepared for some highway and…
British Columbia is a dream destination for hikers and backpackers. The geography of the province is diverse with landscapes that include rocky coastlines, ancient forests, lakes, sandy beaches, mountains and even an inland desert. Deciding what part of the province you want to focus on is important - not just from the perspective of what landscape you like to hike in but because distances are huge. Did you know that British Columbia is the size…
This post from writer Sylvia Dekker takes you on a couple of hikes near Merritt British Columbia - a community you might have stopped in for gas or coffee while driving the Coquihalla Highway between Vancouver and Kamloops or on the way to the Okanagan via Kelowna. If you're like me, you probably didn't know about the great hiking and backpacking opportunities in the region. Now you will! The area surrounding the Merritt, British Columbia…
The Headwall Lakes hike in Peter Lougheed Provincial Park is a wonderful choice if you want a wilder, slightly more challenging hike than nearby Chester Lake. While the trailhead shares the same parking lot as the Chester Lake hike, the two hikes feel completely different. On the Headwall Lakes hike you won't see many people, perhaps 10% of what you'd see on a typical day on the Chester Lake hike. The trail to Headwall Lakes…
The Burgess Shale hike in Yoho National Park has been on my radar for years. Most of the appeal - before I actually did it, was the fact that the Walcott Quarry where the Burgess Shale fossils are located, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and I love checking out UNESCO sites. However, despite the fact that I have a degree in geology, I confess that I am not overly interested in fossils, mildly interested…
It's larch season in Alberta. What that means is seemingly sane people do insane things. Take myself for example. Yesterday, I rose at 3:15 AM and was in the car driving towards Lake Louise by 3:30 AM. I had been closely monitoring the weather forecasts across three stations and was keen on picking a clear day in the mountains. Even though the forecast wasn't ideal, the weather looked to be worsening over the week so…
The Canadian Badlands cover a large swath of south central Alberta, equivalent to an area slightly larger than Hungary. From northeast of Red Deer south to the United States border and east to Saskatchewan, you'll find Canada's finest badland scenery. But that's not all. The Canadian Badlands are home to one of the greatest collections of dinosaur bones in the world, loads of super-cool geologic formations including hoodoos along with 35 provincial parks and natural…